This invention relates to thermally inhibited polysaccharides and improved processes of preparing them, wherein the improvement is dehydrating the polysaccharides under increased pressure and/or increased effective oxygen concentrations to produce compositions of improved organoleptic properties, including color, flavor and odor.
It is well known that starch can be heated for various purposes such as drying, vaporizing off-flavors, imparting a smoky taste, dextrinizing or annealing. More recently, heat treatment has been used to make thermally inhibited starches. U.S. Pat. No. 5,725,676 issued Mar. 10, 1998 to Chin et al, discloses a process for making thermally inhibited, non-pregelatinized granular starch using heat treatment. U.S. Pat. No. 6,261,376 issued Jul. 17, 2001 to Jeffcoat et al., discloses a thermally inhibited, pregelatinized, non-granular starch or flour prepared by dehydrating and heat treating the starch or flour.